Expansion

Westward rush of railroads advanced ‘hell on wheels’

The westward rush of the railroads across the Plains and westward led to an onward march of an interesting social characteristic that gained a special name: “hell on wheels.” More than just a curse or profane expression, “hell on wheels” was a Westernism for a very specific advancement of a very unusual type of a sort of “portable town.”

Horses, gold prospectors altered Great Plains, historian says

Widespread use of horses by Native American tribal groups and the rampant rush of people hungry for gold in the Rockies ultimately altered the nature of the Great Plains region as much as railroads and farmers may have during America’s westward expansion.

Hard times of 1830s launched first wagon trains westward

The first wagon trains headed westward along the overland trails — the most famous was the Oregon Trail — from Missouri in 1841, and a major motivation for those making the long, often tortuous journey was economic: Following the Panic of 1837 (a fearsome Depression by even today’s standards), wages throughout America had fallen by 30-50 percent. There were no unemployment figures kept at the time, of course, but had there been, they would have been horrific. Major public demonstrations by out of work residents of Philadelphia and New York City brought out hundreds of thousands of people in 1839 and 1840.

Book looks at Westward settlement through women’s eyes

I ran onto a wonderful little book in my library which I had forgotten, and wonderful it truly is: It looks at America’s Westward settlement through women’s eyes, by giving excerpts from their diaries of their westward emigration.

1830s brought disease, death to Plains Indians

During the 1830s, diseases brought to the Great Plains region, chiefly smallpox, devastated many Plains Indian groups. This was nothing new in the cultural mingling and cultural conflicts between Native Americans and European traders/settlers. But it was one of the earliest documented pandemics in what we now call the Old West.

Blizzards in Old West days

Blizzards in Old West days were catastrophic throughout most of the West, particularly throughout the Great Plains. For obvious reasons, severe snow, strong winds, and poor visibility combined with near-zero or sub-zero temperatures were dangerous for anyone living in isolated and rural areas. Combine that with the openness of the terrain and dependence upon cattle and stored crops for food, and streams, creeks, or poorly dug wells for water, and blizzards were a far greater disaster then than they are now.

French mining engineer writes of Western travels in 1867

While kicking the dust off some boxes of old books, I ran onto a little volume I forgot I have. So I pulled it out of the box, blew some clouds of dust around the room, and took a close look at this little jewel. The title in English is “The Rocky Mountain West in 1867,” and in French it is titled “Le gand-ouest des Etats-Unis.” What I have is the English translation done by Wilson O. Clough. The original — and I do not speak or read any sort of French — was a collection of letters written by Louis L. Simonin, a French mining engineer and professor of geology. The letters were written to an unidentified friend in Paris.

Where and when did ‘the West’ really begin in America?

Maybe you’ve never thought about this question before, but in terms of life in the “Old West,” we need to ask the question I’m asking in the title of this post: Where and when did “the West” begin?

Westward Ho! Would that be expansion or conquest?

The more naive view of westward expansion in the U.S. views it from the standpoint of hearty pioneers risking their lives journeying into unknown wilderness to make a new, better life for themselves and their families.

Life in the Old West

True stories, tall tales, and memorabilia of the American West

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